Nicholas Hammond, who starred in The Amazing Spider-Man television series in the 1970s, will not be reprising his role as the web-slinger for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about No Way Home, Hammond confirmed that he will not be making an appearance in the upcoming Sony MCU sequel because he was never actually approached about returning to the role of the beloved Marvel superhero for another onscreen stint, which he admits was disappointing.

"I think it would have been huge fun. It would have been a kick in the pants to have the old guy there," Hammond said of the third Tom Holland-led Spider-Man film, which is rumored to feature several versions of Spidey from past iterations. "I was really hoping I would be approached but unfortunately, that didn't happen."

He noted that he had enjoyed watching all three actors who have played Spider-Man on the big screen — though when he considers the performances of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland, he finds himself drawn to one iteration in particular as he can spot similarities with his version of Spidey.

"Tom Holland's version is the closest to what we were doing; trying to make him very much a real guy, someone who you could actually forget he had these powers and get caught up in Peter's story," Hammond said, reflecting on his time playing Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the '70s. "That was what we were going for."

There have been hints that we will see several familiar faces in No Way Home, though it remains to be seen whether Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will make their way through the multiverse to our MCU. Garfield, however, has already denied any such rumors, saying, "this is not something I'm aware I am involved in."

Holland has previously said the cast and crew are treating No Way Home as the "end of a franchise," and it certainly seems like they are set to go out with a bang when the film hits theaters on December 17. Holland will star alongside Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange, with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon also returning as MJ and Ned.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

The anime crossover fighting game, Jump Force, will be delisted from digital storefronts in American territories on February 7, 2022. The game's online servers will also go offline several months later on August 24, 2022.

Bandai Namco has announced that all content related to Jump Force will be made unavailable for purchase next year, including all DLC, including the Jump Force Character Pack 1-14, Jump Force Character Pass 1-2, and its in-game currency JF Medals.

When the servers shut down on August 24, various features will go down with it. Players will not be able to log into the multiplayer lobby, participate in online events and ranked matches, access clan functions, view the notice board or leaderboards, and accept rewards from the reward counter. Additionally, the in-game store will no longer function. The Premium Shop will go offline a little earlier, on August 1, 2022.

Our sincere thanks goes out to all Jump Force players and fans for their support; but with all good things, they must come to an end.

Jump Force’s availability through digital purchase in the Americas will end on 2/7/2022 at 5 PM PST. pic.twitter.com/upzmWbqmcP

— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) November 10, 2021

Jump Force's offline content will still be playable after August, including its campaign mode. Interestingly, players will be able to continue playing in online PvP battles, just not ranked ones. Any DLC purchased before it gets delisted in February is also playable when the game eventually finishes sunsetting.

Jump Force launched on February 15, 2019, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The Nintendo Switch version was released on August 28, 2020. In IGN's Jump Force review, Mitchell Saltzman wrote, "If you’ve got like-minded anime fans who are down to smash some buttons and watch the sparks fly, Jump Force’s fighting system allows for at least a few hours of shallow fun before it gets stale and repetitive."

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Despite the fact that Battlefield 2042 doesn't enter early access for another two days, EA has quietly released the web app for the game's new create-your-own-Battlefield-multiplayer-experience mode, Battlefield Portal.

As spotted by The Loadout, players looking forward to the upcoming release of Battlefield 2042 can begin creating their own Battlefield Portal experiences using the web application today.

Once logged in, the builder is easy to use. Taking a step-by-step approach, players are first able to set the different game modes they would like to include in their portal experience, followed by a choice of maps, game mode details, modifiers, and restrictions.

As previously understood, the portal web app (within reason) pretty much allows you to do whatever you want when it comes to tailoring your Battlefield experience. While setting your preferred game modes and maps lays out the foundations for your experience, it's really the options after that which allow you to have the most fun.

Tweaking the game mode details allows you to change factors such as team allocation - meaning that should you wish, you can now take part in a 1v63 Team Deathmatch with your weapons of choice. Meanwhile, the apps modifiers section allows you to set different gameplay mechanics, soldier and vehicle options, interface preferences, and more. The options here are pretty wide and varied -there's even a setting to stop players from exiting vehicles - meaning that once you've climbed inside your tank, plane, or car you're not leaving without a respawn.

As previously reported, a range of additional settings in the editor allow you to further refine the gameplay experience. From dictating choices in weapons, attachments, and gadgets to character preferences and more, there's certainly plenty for players to work through.

With all that in mind, perhaps it's not too surprising that EA has decided to launch the web app a couple of days early - knowing that this will give players the chance to get to grips with it before the game enters early access and beyond over the coming weeks.

For more from the world of first-person shooters, make sure to check out this piece delving into the decades-long rivalry that has grown between Battlefield and Activision's Call of Duty series.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

IGN got its first hands-on playtime with FromSoftware’s upcoming Elden Ring. While you can read our full hands-on preview, we also got a new clip featuring a boss from the RPG, Margit the Fell.

Margit the Fell is an Elden Ring boss who’s quite easy. No, I’m kidding, he’s tough and you can see why in the video clip below.

While Margit’s full lore and backstory won’t be revealed until Elden Ring is released in February 2022, the boss fight should be enticing for fans. Despite his size, he has moves that can be parried, leaving him open to heavy damage. But as our previewer Mitchell Saltzman notes, sometimes he’ll follow up his attacks with more moves and punish you for trying to hit him.

Midway through the fight, Margit will summon a lightning hammer which deals massive AOE damage and gives him a spinning attack. The spin move is both difficult to dodge and will eat your entire stamina bar if you try to block it, so good luck.

Check out IGN’s full hands-on preview for our impressions of the massive open-world, unique Breath of the Wild-style dungeons, and new weapon upgrades.

Ahead of the upcoming closed network test, FromSoftware confirmed that Elden Ring will run “up to” 60 FPS on new-gen consoles and PC and that five classes will be playable for the test.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind Back 4 Blood, has said that it has fixed an issue in the game that had been causing special zombies to spawn more frequently during runs than the developer intended.

If you've played Back 4 Blood, then you might have noticed that at times it can get a little hectic. This is especially true when playing some of the later levels of the campaign on higher difficulty settings. It can often feel like the game's special Ridden (that's Back 4 Blood's name for the undead) spawn in at overwhelming rates. As it turns out, Turtle Rock Studios has confirmed that this isn't intentional but instead as a result of a bug that's been causing special enemies to overspawn during runs.

The studio addressed the issue during its November 2021 developer update. "We found an issue where Specials would frequently duplicate their spawn cards, compounding as players progressed through levels," reads the update. "This would often result in an unfair amount of Specials overwhelming Cleaner teams."

After finding the issue, the developer says that it should be fixed as part of an update patch that went live earlier this week. While this should help to bring a bit more balance to the later stages of Back 4 Blood's campaign, the studio has also that it will continue to "dig into spawning issues to help further smooth out the experience" in later updates.

In addition to fixing the frequency of specials spawned into the game, this month's update for Back 4 Blood also made a number of other changes. As well as various general bug fixes and improvements, the studio says that it has listened to community feedback and implemented some highly requested quality of life updates to the game. Among those are the ability to disable in-game voice chat, unlocking all Cleaner characters from the start of the game, and unlocking all previous chapters after completing any campaign chapter.

Looking ahead, the studio recently published its upcoming roadmap for the game. While this month's focus will be on improving the overall gameplay of Back 4 Blood through major bug fixes and quality of life improvements, December will see new content added to the game by way of additional supply lines and a solo offline mode with campaign progression. The roadmap also confirmed that a number of additional features will be coming to the game throughout 2022 - including a new difficulty setting, co-op mode, and a wider selection of player cards.

Cleaners, the future is lookin' bright! Here's a roadmap of what's to come for Fort Hope. #Back4Blood pic.twitter.com/IHCvGqZXO0

— Back 4 Blood (@back4blood) November 8, 2021

For more on Back 4 Blood make sure to check out our review where we awarded the game an 8/10.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind Back 4 Blood, has said that it has fixed an issue in the game that had been causing special zombies to spawn more frequently during runs than the developer intended.

If you've played Back 4 Blood, then you might have noticed that at times it can get a little hectic. This is especially true when playing some of the later levels of the campaign on higher difficulty settings. It can often feel like the game's special Ridden (that's Back 4 Blood's name for the undead) spawn in at overwhelming rates. As it turns out, Turtle Rock Studios has confirmed that this isn't intentional but instead as a result of a bug that's been causing special enemies to overspawn during runs.

The studio addressed the issue during its November 2021 developer update. "We found an issue where Specials would frequently duplicate their spawn cards, compounding as players progressed through levels," reads the update. "This would often result in an unfair amount of Specials overwhelming Cleaner teams."

After finding the issue, the developer says that it should be fixed as part of an update patch that went live earlier this week. While this should help to bring a bit more balance to the later stages of Back 4 Blood's campaign, the studio has also that it will continue to "dig into spawning issues to help further smooth out the experience" in later updates.

In addition to fixing the frequency of specials spawned into the game, this month's update for Back 4 Blood also made a number of other changes. As well as various general bug fixes and improvements, the studio says that it has listened to community feedback and implemented some highly requested quality of life updates to the game. Among those are the ability to disable in-game voice chat, unlocking all Cleaner characters from the start of the game, and unlocking all previous chapters after completing any campaign chapter.

Looking ahead, the studio recently published its upcoming roadmap for the game. While this month's focus will be on improving the overall gameplay of Back 4 Blood through major bug fixes and quality of life improvements, December will see new content added to the game by way of additional supply lines and a solo offline mode with campaign progression. The roadmap also confirmed that a number of additional features will be coming to the game throughout 2022 - including a new difficulty setting, co-op mode, and a wider selection of player cards.

Cleaners, the future is lookin' bright! Here's a roadmap of what's to come for Fort Hope. #Back4Blood pic.twitter.com/IHCvGqZXO0

— Back 4 Blood (@back4blood) November 8, 2021

For more on Back 4 Blood make sure to check out our review where we awarded the game an 8/10.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Wizards of the Coast and G4 announced today that the D&D developer and resurgent tech TV channel are teaming up to produce the first Actual Play series to air on cable television.

The series, called Dungeons & Dragons Presents: Invitation to Party, will premiere on G4TV later this month and feature a cast of recognizable faces from across the D&D/TRPG community.

With veteran TRPG storyteller, game designer, and Dungeon Master B. Dave Walters taking the seat behind the DM creen, the rest of the cast includes internet personality Kassem Gharaibeh (co-founder of Maker Studios), actress Fiona Nova, Indiana Black (perhaps best known as the LoL caster Froskurinn), and TV writer/actor Ify Nwadiwe (who D&D streaming fans may remember from Dimension 20's Bloodkeep mini-series).

The show will be broadcast live on G4's Twitch and YouTube channels on Friday nights, where viewers can interact with the cast and vote on potential story beats, NPCs, obstacles and other prompts for the players and DM to interact with. Taking a page out of improv shows from ages past, the series will also encourage the cast to step away from the table to actively play out character interactions in real time.

D&D Presents: Invitation to Party's inaugural live stream will be Friday, November 19, 2021 at 6pm ET / 3pm PT and will then be broadcast on G4TV the following Monday (Nov 22) at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT.

Wizards of the Coast and G4 announced today that the D&D developer and resurgent tech TV channel are teaming up to produce the first Actual Play series to air on cable television.

The series, called Dungeons & Dragons Presents: Invitation to Party, will premiere on G4TV later this month and feature a cast of recognizable faces from across the D&D/TRPG community.

With veteran TRPG storyteller, game designer, and Dungeon Master B. Dave Walters taking the seat behind the DM creen, the rest of the cast includes internet personality Kassem Gharaibeh (co-founder of Maker Studios), actress Fiona Nova, Indiana Black (perhaps best known as the LoL caster Froskurinn), and TV writer/actor Ify Nwadiwe (who D&D streaming fans may remember from Dimension 20's Bloodkeep mini-series).

The show will be broadcast live on G4's Twitch and YouTube channels on Friday nights, where viewers can interact with the cast and vote on potential story beats, NPCs, obstacles and other prompts for the players and DM to interact with. Taking a page out of improv shows from ages past, the series will also encourage the cast to step away from the table to actively play out character interactions in real time.

D&D Presents: Invitation to Party's inaugural live stream will be Friday, November 19, 2021 at 6pm ET / 3pm PT and will then be broadcast on G4TV the following Monday (Nov 22) at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that Forza Horizon 5 is Xbox Game Studios' biggest ever launch.

In a tweet, the studio head revealed the successful start for the latest installment of the racing series, stating that it had enjoyed the largest launch day for an Xbox Game Studios title ever.

We've invested for years in Xbox so more people can play. With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life. Largest launch day for XGS game, peak concurrent 3x FH4 high. Thank you players & congrats to @WeArePlayground

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 10, 2021

Spencer's tweet reveals that Forza Horizon 5 has, within just days, reached 4.5 million players across PC, cloud, and console. He also noted that since launch, Forza Horizon 5 has seen a peak concurrent number of players three times higher than that of its predecessor Forza Horizon 4 - a factor that could be down to the growing popularity of Xbox Games Pass.

Playground Games' latest venture into the racing franchise takes place in a stunning open-world recreation of Mexico. As well as including a number of picturesque scenic routes and stunning vistas, the game also features a number of vibrant urban areas - and in true Forza Horizon fashion - a multitude of different terrains to get to grips with.

While Forza Horizon 5 has been popular with fans since its release, the game has also gained critical approval too. Critic reviews on Metacritic currently stand at 91 and 92 on PC and Xbox Series X respectively. In our own Horizon 5 review, we awarded the game a 10/10 stating that the game "is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available."

While Spencer's original comments state that the company has invested for years in Xbox so that more people can play games, Forza Horizon 5's accessibility options have also been praised for doing the same. Despite already including a number of accessibility features at launch to make the game more inclusive to players around the world, Xbox recently confirmed that there's more to come. A post-launch update for the game is expected to take place that will include an on-screen sign language interpreter, with both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL).

For more on Forza Horizon 5, make sure to check out our dedicated IGN page for the game, where you can watch our Forza Horizon 5 performance review, and find out where every Barn Find is.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that Forza Horizon 5 is Xbox Game Studios' biggest ever launch.

In a tweet, the studio head revealed the successful start for the latest installment of the racing series, stating that it had enjoyed the largest launch day for an Xbox Game Studios title ever.

We've invested for years in Xbox so more people can play. With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life. Largest launch day for XGS game, peak concurrent 3x FH4 high. Thank you players & congrats to @WeArePlayground

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 10, 2021

Spencer's tweet reveals that Forza Horizon 5 has, within just days, reached 4.5 million players across PC, cloud, and console. He also noted that since launch, Forza Horizon 5 has seen a peak concurrent number of players three times higher than that of its predecessor Forza Horizon 4 - a factor that could be down to the growing popularity of Xbox Games Pass.

Playground Games' latest venture into the racing franchise takes place in a stunning open-world recreation of Mexico. As well as including a number of picturesque scenic routes and stunning vistas, the game also features a number of vibrant urban areas - and in true Forza Horizon fashion - a multitude of different terrains to get to grips with.

While Forza Horizon 5 has been popular with fans since its release, the game has also gained critical approval too. Critic reviews on Metacritic currently stand at 91 and 92 on PC and Xbox Series X respectively. In our own Horizon 5 review, we awarded the game a 10/10 stating that the game "is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available."

While Spencer's original comments state that the company has invested for years in Xbox so that more people can play games, Forza Horizon 5's accessibility options have also been praised for doing the same. Despite already including a number of accessibility features at launch to make the game more inclusive to players around the world, Xbox recently confirmed that there's more to come. A post-launch update for the game is expected to take place that will include an on-screen sign language interpreter, with both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL).

For more on Forza Horizon 5, make sure to check out our dedicated IGN page for the game, where you can watch our Forza Horizon 5 performance review, and find out where every Barn Find is.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.